1. Field of Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate generally to digital data processing, and, more specifically, in certain embodiments, to providing and managing registers.
2. Description of Related Art
In the field of computing, pattern recognition tasks are increasingly challenging. Ever larger volumes of data are transmitted between computers, and the number of patterns that users wish to identify is increasing. For example, spam or malware are often detected by searching for patterns in a data stream, e.g., particular phrases or pieces of code. The number of patterns increases with the variety of spam and malware, as new patterns may be implemented to search for new variants. Searching a data stream for each of these patterns can form a computing bottleneck. Often, as the data stream is received, it is searched for each pattern, one at a time. The delay before the system is ready to search the next portion of the data stream increases with the number of patterns. Thus, pattern recognition may slow the receipt of data.
Additionally, systems that perform the pattern recognition and the other associated processing may use multiple registers to store various data, such as search data, configuration parameters, status information, pattern-matching results, or the like. These “processor registers” may typically be directly available to a processing unit of the system, for example, in order to provide quick access as compared to other storage that may be accessible to the processing unit. It may be appreciated, however, that many systems include a finite addressing space for recording the physical location of various forms of memory, including main system memory (e.g., random access memory) as well as such registers. Further, certain systems, such as pattern-recognition systems, may include a large number of registers to enable configuration and operation of the system. If a system includes a large number of registers accessible by the processing unit, the remaining address space available for main system memory may be reduced and overall performance of the system may be impacted.